Olympia, WA remembers Rachel- Events planned for March

On Saturday, March 16th, Olympia will mark the 10th anniversary of Rachel’s stand in Gaza. It has been an extraordinary and challenging journey for the Rachel Corrie Foundation, for the Corrie family, and for those in our community and beyond who have worked tirelessly for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel, in the world, and here at home.

In this month’s launch of a special year-long Peace Works effort, we will feature multiple special events and a remarkable March 16th day of action, reflection, and celebration. We will focus on how Rachel has touched our community and the world; on all that has been accomplished these past ten years through our local, regional, national, and international peace-building; and on inspiring the work to come.

Music and Dance- Batiste Dabke, House of Tarab, David Rovics, and more!

Community Potluck (5:00-7:00 pm) – an Olympia tradition

Remembrances – from Cindy and Craig Corrie and others

Interactive Displays- A visual feast reflecting Rachel Corrie – the writer, artist, and activist, and the continuing struggle; ten years for the Rachel Corrie Foundation; ten years for our community’s work on Israel/Palestine; and ten-years of local peace-building.

Writer, analyst, and activist on U.S. foreign policy related to the Middle East and the UN, Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC and is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. A journalist at the UN for ten years, Bennis remains a special adviser to top-level UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. In the U.S., she works actively on global peace and with Palestinian rights movements and was a co-founder of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Bennis has authored eight books on the Middle East and the United Nations and is a frequent contributor to U.S. and global media at the BBC, Democracy Now!, Al-Jazeera, NPR, the Nation, AlterNet, Common Dreams, TomPaine.com. and more.

Ramzy Baroud, originally from Gaza, is a Palestinian-American journalist, author, editor, former producer for al-Jazeera, and currently Editor in Chief of The Palestine Chronicle. Baroud’s work has been published in hundreds of newspapers, including The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and nearly every English-language publication throughout the Middle East. He has been a guest on CNN, NPR, and other broadcast media. Baroud’s third book, My Father was a Freedom Fighter, Gaza’s Untold Story, published in 2010, narrates his family’s history from 1940 to the present.

We are excited to team up with the Olympia Film Society (OFS) to present this film followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Friday, March 15th. Fida Qishta is a Palestinian journalist from Rafah, Gaza, and survivor of the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead attack on Gaza by the Israeli Military. The film tells Fida’s story of life during the past decade in Gaza and during the siege, along with the moving story of Mona, a Palestinian girl, ten-years old at the time of Operation Cast Lead. Fida will be joined by Rachel Corrie Foundation board member Sonja Wentz for discussion with the audience following the movie.
Tickets: $5.50- OFS members, $8.50- non-members

Sunday, March 3rd – Remi Kanazi – Spoken Word Justice

Remi Kanazi, Palestinian-American poet, writer, and human rights activist based in New York City will bring his spoken word to Olympia in a performance Sunday, March 3rd, 6 pm, at the Washington State Labor Council, 906 Columbia St. SW.

From 2-4 PM, at the same location, Kanazi will provide a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) workshop about the Palestinian call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel, misconceptions about this call, and how to mount BDS campaigns.

Author of Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and Palestine and editor of Poets For Palestine, a hip hop, poetry, and art anthology, Kanazi is a recurring writer in residence and advisory board member for the Palestine Writing Workshop. He has taught, lectured, and performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. A member of the organizing committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Kanazi has been a featured political commentator for news outlets throughout the world. Through spoken word, he inspires audiences to discover their power to act for justice and peace in Israel/Palestine. An American-born son of Palestinian refugees who deeply feels his roots, Kanazi states, “This isn’t about me being a Palestinian or me being an Arab. It’s about a system of oppression and what’s being done to a people.” Kanazi will be available for book signing.
The events are sponsored by the Rachel Corrie Foundation. For more info, call 754-3998.